The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-20
INFECTIOUS DRUNKENNESS.

Reformed Men Who Have Shown
Signs of IntoXication from Contagion.
There are cases of reformed men who
show signs of intOxicatiOn from the conta-
gion of others who are drunkards Thefol
lowing is an example, says the London Ear
change: A prominent military man who
had drunk moderately once, while attend
ing dinner with his old comrades, where
most of them were intoxicated, suddenly be-
came hilarious, made a foolish speech, set
tied back in his chair in drunken state, and
was finally taken home quite stupid. He
had not drank any spirits and had only used
coffee and water, and yet he had all the
symptoms of the others, only his was intoxi-
cation from contagion the favoring soil had
been prepared long ago in the army.
Another case was that of man who had
been an inebriate years ago, but had re-
formed. He was recently elected to office,
and gave dinner to some friends, Among
them was physician who has been greatly
interested in these studies. He sent me
long report, the substance of which was
this: On the occasion referred to many of
| the company became partially intoxicated,
| and the host, who drank nothing but water,
became hilarious, and finally stupid. with
them. He was put to bed with every sign
| morning had only confused notion IF these
| events
The third cosa occurrad fou,. ve,rs .oo
| A reformed man. of twelve wears sobriefy
| went on a military excursion with drink
| mo con1nanv and ALTHOUGH ba dranl, moth
| ing but lemonade became as much intoXi-
| Gated as the others. This event was the sub
| iect of much comment and loss to him so
| ciallv and otherwise, although no protested
| and others confirmed his Statements that he
| did not take any spirits ut this time In
| these cases two conditions wore nreSent-ono
| in which some snacial unlynoyy7, ,,orya state
| was inherited. which readily reflected alec
| holic states from contagion. the other. i'm
| which This norticular oIcObolic statn boJ
been acquired. and moro readily responded
| To contagious SURROUNDINGS than otherwise
Thus actors who essay to represent insan-
| itv or inebriety are successful in pronortiou
| ms they Inherit n nervous orpnni2ati6n nre-
| disposing them TO these affections A SINGLE
| plaSs of spirits may awaken n latent nerve
! defeat and soon after merge into inchrietv
| So the effort to initiate the manner and CON
| duct of an intoxicated person may give i'm
press and direction TO mn ORGANISM that will
| he permanent. An actor. greatly nraised
| for his skill as Hamlet was oblicod To
| leave the stage for the reason that this char
actpr was becoming so Intimately his ms 10
suggest insanity at an early day A man
who acted the mart of n drunken man was
after n time. so completely intoxicated MS 10
bc unfit for his part He could not use
spirits and had to give M his mart in fin.
play for the same reason as mentioned
ab1ye
A remarkable incident of this kind come
to nv notice. 4 temnerance writer of orcnt
powcr and viyidncss of detail said that he
lived ali the details of the hero be was do
scribing in his own mind When the char
actor Was intoxicated he had Mi the SWIM
A. (;